Can speech be written differently?
Some writing systems ask you to memorise arbitrary symbols and spelling conventions.
isiBheqe asks a different question:
Have you ever wondered what happens inside your mouth when you speak?
What if writing could represent that?
1. Where does speech come from?
Can you speak without moving your tongue?
Can you pronounce /i/ with exactly the same mouth position as /a/?
What changes when /p/ becomes /b/?
What happens when you pronounce /m/ instead of /b/?
You might discover:
- the speaking body;
- articulation;
- voicing;
- airflow;
- nasality.
2. What is the smallest unit of speech?
When you say sawubona, do you hear six letters…
or four syllables?
How do you know where one syllable ends and another begins?
What is always present inside a syllable?
You might discover:
- siNtu syllables end on a vowel or they are syllablic nasals like “m” or “ng”
- the vowel centered-system of isiBheqe;
- syllabic nasals : “m”, “n”, “ng”
3. Why do vowels come first?
If every syllable has a nucleus…
which sound should organise the graphic structure?
Why doesn’t isiBheqe begin with the consonant?
Could the vowel itself become the framework of the entire syllable?
You might discover:
- vowel space;
- vowel articulation;
- vowel frame.
4. How are consonants different?
If vowels build the frame…
how do consonants modify it?
What makes /t/ different from /k/?
What makes /s/ different from /t/?
Can two sounds be produced in the same place but in different ways?
You might discover:
- place;
- manner;
- consonant features.
5. Can one grapheme represent several articulatory properties?
When you pronounce /mb/…
is it two independent sounds…
or one organised articulatory event?
What changes when a consonant becomes voiced?
How is prenasalisation different from a syllabic nasal?
You might discover:
- combinatoriality;
- modifiers;
- phonation;
- voicing;
- nasality.
6. How does speech become writing?
Suppose someone pronounces a syllable.
Where do you begin?
The vowel?
The consonant?
How do you decide which features belong inside the same ibheqe?
How do several amabheqe become a word?
7. How does writing become speech again?
When you see an unfamiliar ibheqe…
where do your eyes go first?
The vowel?
The consonant?
The modifiers?
8. What have you actually learned?
Have you memorised hundreds of symbols?
Or have you learned a system that can generate them?
Can you now hear a spoken word…
analyse it…
write it…
and read it back…
without relying on Latin spelling?